Pink Seed Stitch Doll Blanket

Doll blankets used to be my traveling projects but with COVID I'm not traveling much these days and taking a project with me isn't a healthy choice. However, I have been visiting with family and doing some other stuff via teleconferencing and thus the doll blankets are being worked on during those times. I also find they are a nice relaxing project between some of the other projects as most of these require minimal counting and monitoring to keep the project in check.

I'm continuing to work on reducing my stash. I had picked up some Red Heart Super Saver Ombre Jazzy when it was on sale during my travels as I really do have a thing for striped and variegated yarn. This has larger stripes than I'm used to working on but I suspected it would work for blankets.

This is a simple crochet seed stitch project. I like it because it is quite relaxing and easy on my hands. The border is a chain stitch border. I make it large enough to fit the 18" dolls but it goes in a bag of doll blankets that can be used for any donated dolls or stuffed animals that come into the doll donation.

I haven't picked out the blankets that will be donated with the 18" dolls yet. Other than the Lil Cutesies doll all the baby dolls have their blankets in their donation storage bags. I have a bag per doll to keep the stuff separated to make sure each doll is getting enough items. At some point I'll decide which blankets will go with the two 18" dolls for this year. I'm just not ready to pick yet.

Cozy Post Stitch Doll Afghan

I'm not sure which Crochet Calendar this one came from, but this is another of Michelle Crean's doll patterns and you can purchase the set at Annie's here or her website here. I give you both because Annie's sometimes has sales or coupons, but then they put stuff on clearance and the links die. However, I suspect Michelle will be selling her own patterns for considerably longer. That gives you time to find it if you want it. I find it frustrating to find a write up about a pattern I love only to discover I can't find it so I do what I can to help.

This was a fun pattern to work on. I used up some Caron Simply Soft that I'd bought for a baby blanket project and then changed gears and didn't need so much yarn. It felt good to shop from my stash to finish up another project. I also liked going with the watermelon colors. I don't know why, but this color scheme seems to sneak into my doll donations every other year or so in some fashion or other. A few years ago it was the baby dolls as I attempted to use up some yarn that had been given to me.

So again for the pattern notes. The Caron Simply Soft worked fine for this pattern. It required an I hook to make the size I wanted. Lastly again just a note to help me remember what worked, mark first chain 2 and last hdc with marker for better stitch count. I had a hard time picking these out and thus was confused about getting an accurate stitch count. Once I started putting a saftey pin in these stitches I stopped having issues with my count as I knew where these stitches were located and life become easier.

I'm working on the Valentine Lovey at the moment along with the Gray Lady 18" doll outfit. The ami heart has proven to be the most challenging item for the lovey. I can't remember making one before that wasn't two sides sewn together. I did a quick search on the blog here and as I remembered I'd made some Valentine heart toys for my nephews a few years back, but that pattern had you make 2 sides and sew them together, not the traditional ami style that I was struggling with yesterday. I did however finish one, but it is likely going to be better for a larger toy I wanted to make and send. I'm almost done with the smaller heart that will go with the Bunny Valentine Lovey. I'm slowly getting there and I still have time. My drop dead mail date is the last day of January although I'd like to go sooner if possible. I still need to order the Board Books to send with it.

Edward's Crochet Doll Emporium: Flip the Mix-and-Match Patterns to Make and Dress Your Favourite People

A Tisket A Tasket Doll Blanket

As I mentioned in a previous post I decided to get the 18 inch doll donation blankets out of the way while I was dealing with a head cold. I had enough energy to focus on counting, although I still had to go back and pull out when I lost count, but it was better than the challenge of trying to focus on making items fit. Blankets once wide enough, usually aren't a problem with dolls if you follow the pattern.

This is another Michelle Crean pattern and it came from Crochet 2016 Day-to-Day Calendar that I received for Christmas this year. There were several doll patterns this year, but this by far made putting the calendar on my Christmas wish list worth it. I now have two great doll blanket patterns in my pattern list.

I love the Easy Peasy pattern I wrote about a few days ago. However, after making two last year, I got a little burned out. I started this one first finished a skein and started on the Easy Peasy afghan and kept alternating until the Easy Peasy afghan was finished. Then it was just a matter of finishing off this one. Alternating the types of stitches I was doing made it much more fun to complete. I'm actually thinking about knocking off the doll afghans in my down time that always hits me when I can't make doll clothes. These were fun, easy, relaxing projects. They might be the distraction I need and something to put aside for another donation.

I did change the materials and hook size on this pattern too. I used 4 skeins of Red Heart Super Saver and and I hook for the project and I measured the length against the doll to get the size blanket I wanted for the doll.

Easy Peasy Doll Afghan

I love finding a pattern that you can make, enjoy, and repeat. Last year I found Michelle Crean's Easy Peasy Doll blanket pattern in the 2015 Crochet Calendar and made two for last year's donation. This year it was one of the first patterns I pulled out of my doll pattern binder to repeat.

I had nasty head cold and decided blankets required little more than counting to make sure the pattern would turn into the intended object. Doll clothes require trying on and making sure the items fit. So I opted for blankets. I actually started two blankets at about the same time, finishing this one first.

I changed the pattern using an I hook and Red Heart Super Saver. I tried the suggested yarn last year and with my tension the blankets were too small and I ended up using I Love this Yarn and Red Heart Super Saver for the 18 Inch doll blankets I made. It took me just barely 3 skeins to finish it off all in one color. If I'd used a contrasting color I probably could have used two skeins of the variegated and one of the contrasting color.